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Some influencers are secretly using ghostwriters to respond to OnlyFans messages
Some influencers are secretly using ghostwriters to respond to OnlyFans messages
Amanda PerelliDec 10, 2020, 19:20 IST
Business InsiderWebfluential / Getty Images
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Hi, this is Amanda Perelli and welcome back to Insider Influencers, our weekly rundown on the influencer and creator economy. Sign up for the newsletter here.
The paywall-content platform OnlyFans has recently surged in popularity among influencers on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
This week, I wrote about how many of these influencers have leaned into the messaging component of OnlyFans, rather than the explicit content that made the platform famous.
In short: fans pay to message their favorite creators.
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Here's how it works:
Free-tier users are often told to add a tip to send a message (usually with a minimum tip of $5).
Or they can send a big up-front tip (usually between $100 and $200) to be added to VIP tier for "unlimited" chatting.
But the amount of messaging needed to run a successful OnlyFans has led some influencers to use ghostwriters to respond to messages on their behalf, industry insiders said.
It's a secret that no one wants to discuss openly, since if fans found out they might feel betrayed - and stop paying.
"The relationship with the audience is so temperamental," one manager said. "If anyone found out that was happening the audience would be pissed."
From what we know, the use of OnlyFans ghostwriters is a practice popular in the influencer community rather than among the sex workers who propelled the platform to prominence.
The TikTok hashtag #DadsofTikTok has racked up over 9 billion total views.
And one TikTok famous dad, 59-year-old Dan McFarland, is the star of his family's viral account.
The McFarlands are a family of five from Kentucky who now have over 2 million followers on TikTok.
My colleague Sydney Bradley wrote that this year they started regularly working with brands on sponsored content.
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Their starting rates are between $5,000 and $8,000 for a sponsored TikTok video, and then an additional starting rate of $3,000 to $6,000 for that same footage to be posted on Instagram.
TikTok.Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
At a presentation last month, TikTok's North America product strategy lead Gabriel Nicolau spoke about the company's eight marketing products (including six ad products).
Dan wrote that TikTok's current ad solutions are more tailored to big brands looking for a splashy takeover than a local restaurant aiming to draw in new customers, despite the company's recent efforts to court smaller accounts.
Nicolau described one of TikTok's ad formats as "like having a mobile Times Square in your pocket."
New documents appear to show that YouTuber Jeffree Star and his team attempted to stop Insider reporter Kat Tenbarge's October investigation into Star.
A blog devoted to online gossip published an image of a cashier's check that appears to show a $45,000 payment to Star's sexual-assault accuser Gage Arthur from a Jeffree Star Cosmetics executive days after Arthur retracted his allegations to Insider.
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Previously, Insider reported that Gage Arthur (who goes by his middle name) accused Star of performing nonconsensual oral sex on him at Star's home in 2009 while Arthur was intoxicated.
Finally, the document indicates that Arthur would be paid an additional $20,000 for contacting two of Insider's other sources for the investigation.
